The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers squared off with the Cincinnati Bengals, it resulted in a blowout win for the Black and Gold in Week 16 with Mason Rudolph leading the way against Cincinnati’s Jake Browning.
A lot has changed since that Dec. 23, 2023, meeting at Acrisure Stadiun on both sides.
This time, in Week 13 at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, the Bengals will have star quarterback Joe Burrow, who will try to salvage the Bengals’ season.
While Pittsburgh seemingly has the edge entering the matchup, the presence of Burrow on the other side should force the Steelers to change up how they defend the star signal caller.
At least, that’s how ESPN’s Ben Solak sees it.
“The Steelers really have to try to be something different on defense than what they’ve been this year. Like schematically, if they’re gonna be successful against Burrow ’cause Burrow…we’ve already seen him get rid of the ball extremely quickly, very accurately to a wide variety of targets,” Solak said Thursday morning on The Mina Kimes Show, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “And the Steelers right now, Joey Porter Jr. goes and shadows the top receiver, right? I think it’s eight out of 10 games that he’s been in shadow coverage or at least two-thirds of the routes. Last year when they played, he shadowed Ja’Marr Chase when Chase was healthy. And then the game they played with Chase was unhealthy, he shadowed Tee Higgins and he played great against both of them. But Joe’s got both now.”
“When he has Ja’Marr and Tee, this is a nightmare passing game to deal with. Steelers are the highest single-high coverage team in all of football defensively. The Bengals have barely seen single high this year. Nobody plays single high against ’em anymore because Joe shreds it, especially with those two receivers on the outside.”
The Steelers do like to play single high and put star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in that centerfield role where he keeps a lid on things and serves as that last line of defense. It’s led to plenty of criticism regarding Fitzpatrick’s lack of splash plays and turnovers forced, but overall he’s doing his job very well and keeping a lid on things defensively, covering up on the back end.
But against Cincinnati, that could be a bad decision, based on how quickly Burrow is able to get the ball to his playmakers like Chase and Higgins, who can win quickly on routes and make plays after the catch.
From Solak’s perspective, the Steelers can’t just sit back in single high, rush four and hope to disrupt the Bengals’ explosive offense. Instead, they’re going to need to give Burrow and the Bengals different looks, breaking their tendencies.
“So you, as Pittsburgh, if you come in, you say, we are going to run our stuff, do what we do with our pass rush and our press-man coverage and Minkah deep, Burrow is going to fry you,” Solak said. “Like, you could put me and you at tackle, Burrow is going to fry. He’s too smart, he’s too quick getting rid of the football. They also do the multiple tight ends things. They got Khalil Herbert now, and like they will add guys to the protection. They’ll find the time. So you have to be willing to…this has been the book on Joe for a while. Change the picture, right. And be able to drop guys off [the] line of scrimmage and play some two high and play some zone.
“So this is a big Mike Tomlin, Teryl Austin game where, know your foe, right? You’ve been great at doing what you do well, but you can’t line up this way against Cincinnati.”
It’s a great point from Solak. The Steelers have been very good defensively doing what they do all season long. They’re one of the best defenses in football for a reason. But they can’t just go into Sunday’s matchup focused on doing what they do because what they do doesn’t match up all that great with how Burrow is performing this season.
If the Steelers sit back in single high and just rush four, it’s going to be a long day because they aren’t going to get to Burrow much, even with questions at both tackle positions due to injury. Burrow averages 2.71 seconds time to throw, according to Pro Football Focus. That isn’t lightning quick but is fast enough to get the ball out and avoid sacks and disruptions in the pocket.
So, it’s going to be a big-time test for the Steelers, who are coming off an embarrassing loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 12 and had a mini bye week to regroup and adjust some things schematically ahead of another AFC North matchup. We’ll see if they change things up defensively a bit to have better success against Burrow and the Bengals.
